History of the Dagger

The Dagger
was a small multi-purpose knife that
was used at supper and slaughter as
well. With a straight blade, it was
for thrust and puncture, not slash
and gash like the cutlass.

It is notable that the dagger usually
had a cross bar or hilt to keep the
hand off the blade and swords off
the hand. The hilt's most important
function came into play during a
cutlass fight, because it could
'catch' the strike of the blade. The
user could deflect the blow, swiftly
swing the cutlass to the side, and
answer with a hard cutting motion of
his own.